I wouldn’t want to serve on a board of education. It’s one of the most difficult and thankless jobs around.
You catch grief from everyone.
School system employees complain to you.

School system ad-ministrators complain to you.
Parents complain to you.
Students complain to you.
And to top it off, there’s always some pesky newspaper reporter asking you dumb questions, or complaining about how you do your job.
It’s hell.
And it’s not the position many in the public perceive.
The mythological view of being a BOE member is that they have a lot of power and decide what our children are taught in the classrooms. Sometimes, people run for BOE posts because they get mad about something being taught — sex education — or they are on a mission to “put prayer back in school,” or to pursue some other personal or political agenda. More than one person has run for a BOE seat because they want to fire a coach they’re upset about.
But after getting elected, these single-issue candidates discover they have zero power to do any of that.
Zilch.
What can school boards do?
It’s a pretty short list: Hire the superintendent, set the tax rate; decide where schools should be built and how to fund them; sit in on student discipline tribunal appeals; and listen, listen, listen.
And by listen, I mean listen and understand some very complex issues.
School boards aren’t just about educating children. That’s only a part of the overall picture.
Yes, school boards hear a lot from administrators about the latest standardized test scores and education programs, but they hear a lot more about the behind-the-scenes mechanics of running a school system, such as:
• Financial. BOE members have to understand data about the system’s finances, data that is a mix of state, local and federal funds. It’s complex and it requires a pretty high degree of financial savvy to understand how it all works and to figure out how to pay for all the system’s needs.
• Physical. BOEs spend a lot of time talking about school infrastructure. When should new classrooms be built? When should new schools be built, or old schools closed? How should a drainage problem be fixed? What schools need a new roof? Where are the heating and cooling problems? Where are new computers needed? The maintenance and expansion of a school system’s physical facilities is a huge undertaking and costs a lot of money.
• Transportation. Schools run the largest public transit systems in most communities. But those big yellow buses don’t just magically show up; somebody has to hire and train bus drivers and mechanics. Somebody has to figure out the best way to route those buses to pick up kids. Somebody has to buy the fuel for those buses. And somebody has to determine when it’s time to retire an old, worn out bus and replace it with a new one… and figure out how to pay for it.
• Food. Kids have to be fed and schools run what is essentially a huge restaurant business in the community. But somebody has to hire, train and schedule lunchroom workers; order food supplies to have enough, but not too much; and balance all of that against a slew of federal mandates and requirements.
• Instruction. This is the heart of any school system, but it just doesn’t magically exist. Somebody has to hire school teachers and administrators and see that they get paid. Somebody has to develop the curriculum and make sure it meets state and federal standards. Somebody has to see that a host of standardized tests get taken. Somebody has to deal with textbooks and computer software.

While it’s true that school systems have paid staff dedicated to financial, physical, transportation, food, human resources and instruction, BOE members have to know a lot about each to keep up with the decisions they’re asked to make. That’s especially true when SPLOST money is spent for a capital project — there are always far more project demands than dollars to fund them, so BOE members have to decide what’s needed today and what can wait.
The most important job a BOE has to do is hire the system’s superintendent. That position is probably the one of the most difficult in any community (sheriff is right up there in difficulty, too.)
A superintendent can make or break a school system. A good one finds a way to balance all the competing demands and still keep his or her job. A bad superintendent who makes bad hiring decisions can screw up a system for years to come.
Sounds straightforward, but finding and keeping a good superintendent isn’t easy or cheap.
And then there are the athletic pressures BOE members feel from parents and the public. Every school and community wants a winning, successful athletic program and BOE members get a lot of pressure and blowback when things go sour on the athletic field.
But BOE members don’t really do a system’s hiring and firing of coaches, or anyone else. Superintendents recommend hiring to the BOE, but the BOE can only vote up or down on those recommendations. It doesn’t interview personnel, nor should it. That’s up to the system’s principals, human resources people and the superintendent.
The best thing a BOE member can do is to keep his or her personal agenda out of the board room.
When Mr. Old Jock goes on a BOE with the idea of shaking up the football program, all he really does is make a mess.
When Mrs. Religious Right goes on a BOE with the idea of using classrooms to proselytize her particular religious view, all she does is create a nightmare of legal conflicts.
Being on a school board is hard. It takes time. It takes knowledge. It takes patience.
Sometimes, school boards screw up, but more often, they get blamed for things over which they have little, if any, control.
I’ve seen school boards screw up and have written more than one opinion column taking them to task.
But I’m glad somebody’s willing to do what is a darn hard job.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.

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